July Crafting Update and August Goals

[unicornduke]

July Goals - despite my wrist preventing me from crafting for several weeks, I still got a lot done and I'm very happy it's back to normal. I'd say most of this is just finishing things that were mostly done so it's not as impressive as it looks but progress was made. I wish there was a fun spinning event like Tour de Fleece during the winter, but alas.

• spinning - work on Pansy Pandemonium. I doubt I'll finish the 6oz in July but that's okay. maybe spin some more samplers on the eel wheel - all spun up! Nothing else spun but I started spinning something last night
  
• knitting - finish the sweater and get B to take actual nice photos of me wearing it - sweater finished! Crappy photo below. New sweater started
• finish the tablet weaving - done! I also did two more small bands and started one more that's almost done
• warp and weave the wool singles cloth - ugh. warped, beamed and stuck at threading the heddles since I don't have enough heddles yet. I'm halfway through tying more
• process fleece - now that I typed that all up above, I think I'm going to switch to carding the alpaca and comb a sheep fleece - carded almost all of the remaining super soft section of the fleece, just a little more to go.
  
• dye something???? - lol no
• wash a fleece - I washed a small fleece! An icelandic sheep that I sheared. I think it will be a carded and spun fleece since the undercoat is so short, I did a tiny sample.

Pansy Pandimonium! It is superwash Targhee commercial combed top, dyed by Llady Llama Fiber, a pound of it spun up. I will chain ply it to keep the color repeats intact and it will someday go on the loom for a squishy blanket or something.



Knitted sweater. Pattern is Flax Light by Tin Can Knits. I made it a 3/4 sleeve because I was so tired of working on it, plus it is a very light sweater. It's knitted from handspun 2 ply yarn, the main section is two different braids of Jacob from Gnomespun, one called Feldspar and one called Autumn something (I'm laying in bed typing this up and my spinning notebook with all the details is across the room). It ended up being fingering weight yarn or a little lighter. The main section is only 8oz of yarn which is a very small amount. I finished the sleeves with 2 ply handspun yarn, Corridale roving from Foster Sheep Farm. I started this about a year ago at this point.



Two tablet woven bands. The first one is from handspun, coopworth processed from washed fleece, 2 ply that I spun extremely fine with a ton of twist specifically for tablet weaving. I kept it simple and just straight threaded all the tablets and then turned them all forward or backward as the twist required. It twists back on itself a lot right now, but if I steam press it, it will probably lay flat. Or not. I just think it's cool. The second band, picture below, is just from weaving yarn cone ends and again, straight threaded although with some tablets facing one way to make more angles.





Alpaca fleece. I'm carding it since it better than combing, but I'm just pulling it off the cards in one big section and folding it in half. I'll spin it from the ends so it is more dense. It will someday be two ply warp yarn.



Washed Icelandic fleece with a little spun sample from a carded rolag


 August Goals

• spinning - I think I'm formulating a weaving idea to spin, but I'm not 100% sure I'll do that yet right now. So spin something, chain ply Pansy Pandemonium and skein/wash/label everything
• knit the new sweater
• crochet the second pair of mittens
• finish the tablet weaving
• finish tying heddles and thread the loom and reed and then weave jeez
• finish the alpaca fleece
• wash a fleece
• write one post about fiber arts stuff -  I have at least three things I want to write up, the plaid, the romney singles weaving, using fishing swivels with a backstrap loom

Comments

[graydon]

That gold and purple is very pretty!

The icelandic fleece seems kinda intimidating.

[reedrover]

That’s a lot of work you’ve done! The photos of the new single ply are cheerful. Is Targhee soft enough to go against the skin?

Thankfully, my ego doesn’t care about direct personal comparisons… I think I finished one scarf? I haven’t been spinning in a few months now. (For some reason my brain thinks that is a winter activity.)

[unicornduke]

The fleece is super interesting with all it's variation. I've got another one and I think I'm going to separate those coats since the undercoat is longer. But it's neat! If you're ever heard of Lopi yarn, it's from Icelandic sheep.

[unicornduke]

Targhee isn't quite soft enough for next to skin for sensitive areas, but I would totally make a sweater out of it. It's also superwash, which isn't quite the normal Targhee qualities.

No one should compare themselves to me, this is what I do when I'm not working. All my free time is this and I have relatively few obligations outside of work (no kids, no livestock, two of my three part time jobs are winter/spring, the house doesn't need major work right now). It's reasonable to think spinning is a winter activity! There's been a couple of days that I haven't spun even with the air conditioning because the fiber gets too warm in my hand.

I also have two hours a week dedicated crafting time during crafting hangout, which helps a lot.

[reedrover]

Targhee superwash sounds very interesting, if just for the variety away from our friend merino. I will keep a look out this fall at the various festivals for some.

I live in the House of Too Many Hobbies with a 8-5:30 job and livestock so yeah, can’t compare. I’m glad for you that your have a set of hobbies that you enjoy and engage with on the regular. I enjoy reading your posts and visiting your hangout when I can get there.

[unicornduke]

Yeah, I'm anything-but-Merino so I try a lot of things. Targhee is bouncy, 3-5 inch staple and spins up very nicely with some poofing after washing. Similar to Corriedale.

Sometimes I even work on stuff at work, meeting this morning that I knitted through and I have a spindle that lives in my work vehicle so I can spindle when I'm waiting for someone.

I think the other thing that doesn't quite come across is how long the entire process takes from processing, spinning to finished object since I don't put dates on when I spun things up in these posts. Maybe I should. Like the tablet woven band from handspun, I spun that yarn February and March 2022 I think? And it probably took me a couple of weeks to comb it before that. The band took me two months to actually complete working on it on and off. The sweater I just cast on, I bought the fleece in Sept 2021, processed it starting in March 2022, finished spinning early 2023 and probably the sweater will be finished this winter sometime. I think I spun the autumn sweater yarn in 2021 sometime. Textile work takes time and that's okay! I'm glad you're enjoying the posts and its nice to have you at hangout when you can get there!

[graydon]

A sibling had a substantial flock of Icelands for a number of years, so I have heard about Lopi yarn. Also the phrase "vegetative piranha" about what it looks like when they're let out in the spring.